


wine-faced

by drowninglovers



Series: alive and well animal pals [2]
Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Gen, miraculous rescue, my favourite tag to use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-30 03:51:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21421729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drowninglovers/pseuds/drowninglovers
Summary: It’s providence that Neptune is still aboard whenErebusruns into the ice.
Relationships: Henry Collins/William Orren
Series: alive and well animal pals [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1571461
Comments: 15
Kudos: 38
Collections: The Terror Bingo (2019)





	wine-faced

**Author's Note:**

> for bingo prompt 'neptune'! also this exists in the same universe as my jacko fashion icon fic wherein literally nothing goes wrong and everybody gets to go home because i live in Denial City

On Thursday afternoon, Neptune eats a tub of grease hidden behind the kitchen stove. How he got into it is anyone’s guess. The following day he bites a button clean of Lt. Little’s coat— _ why _ exactly he did this is a mystery for the ages. By Saturday he’s graduated to stealing rations right out of the men’s hands, including a roll from Mr. Hickey’s plate which he grabs, then runs away with it as fast as his legs will carry him. 

For uncharacteristic bad behaviour, he’s confined to the captain’s cabin for the remainder of the day. Somehow, during his imprisonment, he gets into a chocolate ration. It likely isn’t enough to cause serious harm but, just in case, he’s loaded up into a boat with the officers when they go to  _ Erebus _ for dinner so Mr. Goodsir can check him over.

On his way to the sickbay, he tries to eat another chocolate ration and nearly takes a man’s pipe out of his mouth. Normally, Neptune is a source of unmitigated delight, but today everyone is concerned about his health.

He’s fine, in the end. Mr. Goodsir proves his skills as a naturalist. The amount of chocolate Neptune ate wasn’t enough to prove harmful beyond a stomach ache, but that was already a given considering he also ate a tub of grease and a button. He’s administered a very small dose of syrup to induce vomiting. Doctor’s orders are for him to lie down under careful watch in the case that something does go wrong. Even Dr. Stanley appears to be at least marginally cheered by Neptune (though maybe it’s the misfortune that he relishes in), for the tight corners of his mouth do not pull down as much when he looks at the newest patient. All he says is that the dog is Mr. Goodsir’s responsibility and that he expects the entire sickbay to be thoroughly cleaned after Neptune is recovered. Then, he goes back to polishing his tools, noticeably away from the large mass of fur settled into a hammock.

Though the Terrors miss Neptune trotting along underfoot and giving him the occasional belly rub, they definitely do not miss his single-minded quest to steal their food when he has his own. Nobody knows what’s gotten into him as of late, he’s normally so well-behaved. As well-behaved as a slobbery behemoth of a dog can be. Once he gets better, he begins to explore the ship (and gets into a scuffle with Fagin, though neither party is hurt by the encounter, just spooked) and, thankfully, does not eat any more rations, grease, or buttons. The Erebites take joy in his presence aboard their ship, despite its less than stellar reasons. Lt. Fairholme in particular always stops to press a kiss to his head whenever he passes. 

It’s providence that he’s still aboard when  _ Erebus _ runs into the ice. Even more serendipitous that he’s on the main deck when it happens. 

Several things happen in rapid succession. The first, obviously, is that in colliding with a rather sizeable chunk of ice,  _ Erebus _ damages her propeller. Not enough to cripple her, but enough to be an inconvenience. The next few things overlap:

  1. The momentum of the collision sends just about every man on board pitching forward.
  2. Mr. Collins accidentally takes out three ABs when he falls.
  3. Lt. Gore, who was working on a seascape belowdecks, is jolted by the crash, as is his paintbrush, which leaves an ugly black smear across the canvas.
  4. In the sickbay, Dr. Stanley’s head makes contact with a particularly low beam as he moves to stand, rendering him momentarily stunned.
  5. Fagin, prowling the orlop, slides into a crate.
  6. The rowboat making its way over to them filled with _Terror_’s officers tasked with, among other things, retrieving Neptune, pauses momentarily. 
  7. The rowers pick up the pace with added vigour. 
  8. _Erebus’_ masts shake, one man loses his hat.
  9. Able-bodied seaman William Orren loses his grip.
  10. He falls from the mast.
  11. He bounces off the sail.
  12. It all happens so fast that none of the reaching hands can secure a hold on him without falling themselves.
  13. William Orren, Billy to his friends, Billy to most of the men, hits the gunwale on his way down.
  14. The ocean swallows him. 

It’s unclear who yells first, who realizes which man fell, who was the first one to see him make contact with the side of the boat. At the moment they cease to be individuals with their own names and hometowns. At present, they are just  _ Erebus _ , an extension of the ship. And one of their numbers has gone overboard. At maximum, they have a minute, possibly two to save him before hypothermia shuts his body down. That is if the shock of the fall didn’t completely discombobulate him. If he was still conscious after hitting the water.

Someone throws a line overboard, badly. It doesn’t go nearly far enough and Orren still hasn’t surfaced. They all lean over the starboard, holding their breath, watching for any signs of life.

Even if he’s alive, by chance or by misfortune, he slammed into the gunwale during his fall. A fall like that, that fast, from that high up, could break a man’s spine. It could do worse. That is if he’s still alive.

A blur cuts through the collection of men, thick tail connecting with someone’s kneecaps and sending that man crumpled to the ground. Faster than any of them thought he could move, faster than anyone can comprehend him moving, Neptune shoots over the side of the ship and plunges into the frigid, ice-filled water. Orren’s head breaks the swell and he hardly has time to inhale as deep as he can before the cold, the current, or exhaustion pull him back under. 

The rowboat from  _ Terror _ is making excellent time now. It cuts through the pancake ice with ease. But, even with all the men rowing as fast as they can, they will not make it in time to save Orren.

Neptune, however, is already paddling towards Orren, who is scant but a sinking silhouette in the water. He dives under. Another line is thrown, this one by a desperate-looking Mr. Collins, mere seconds away from stripping off his coat and following in Neptune’s path. This rope is much closer to where Orren’s outstretched hand would be, but there is nobody to grab it.

When Neptune resurfaces, he’s got Orren slung barely conscious over his back. His blue fingers are knotted carefully in Neptune’s thick fur as he paddles, not back towards the ship, but towards  _ Terror _ ’s rowboat. From the deck, a tentative cheer goes up. Neptune can last longer in freezing water than any of them, he’s a better swimmer too, but getting him and Orren out of the water is only half the battle. 

The rowboat nearly capsizes with the newly-added weight, but by some miracle does not (at their next service, Sir John will pronounce it ‘providence indeed. Divine intervention at its finest’. He will tell the men that this is a Sign that God is on their side for this expedition; they will find the passage and be home to England before their families even have time to miss them. The men will take this gospel like medicine). Lt. Hodgson strips off his overcoat in an instant and wraps it around Orren’s sodden, shivering body. He is cradled between Hodgson and Lt. Irving, who is frantically trying to rub warmth back into his shoulders. Neptune remains perched in the centre of the boat. His fur is drenched and water quickly pools around the feet of all the rowboat’s occupants, but he does not shake it out. Somehow he knows that it would not be helpful.

Billy Orren is brought back to  _ Erebus _ . He coughs up several lungfuls of water, aiming in his fugue state, for the side of the boat, but landing in Dr. MacDonald’s lap. His lips are a horrible deathlike blue, as are his fingers and throat. He cannot speak for shivering, the chatter of his teeth together is the loudest thing on the ship, but he is alive. Mr. Collins personally gathers him into his arms like he weighs nothing and takes Orren, still swaddled in Hodgson’s coat, still convulsing but mercifully, incredibly alive, down to the sickbay.

🐶🐶🐶

“Dr. Stanley says I may not walk again,” Billy whispers once he gets his breath back. “Said when I fell I separated something in my back, hasn’t been able to check if it’s broken.” His words are dulled by shock and a fair amount of spirits; they aren’t quite slurred. More like...slowed down. They fit in his mouth, but with difficulty. Around him, the room is still spinning. When he blinks all he can see is the ocean closing over him. It’s not at all how he expected, being under it. Not wine-faced like he’d learned in school, not beautiful, not a mother to all wayward children. No, the sea that swept him under and spat him back up was none of those things. She was dark, yes, but not like wine. More like oblivion. And she was cruel, and, more than anything she was cold.

Henry draws a thumb over the knuckles he brought to his mouth only moments ago. The skin is still chilled, but no longer corpse-like. The worst of it, according to Dr. Stanley and Mr. Goodsir, should be over by now. “Mr. Weekes will build you a chair, it’ll be state of the art.”

“Broke my shoulder too. Won’t be able to wheel myself around.”

“I’ll push you.”

“You needn’t do that.”

Henry sucks in a breath so quick it hiccups at the back of his throat. “I was the one who ordered you up there. I’m the reason you fell.”

“You ordered me,” Billy begins, with as much gentle reproach as he can manage (which is, in truth, not very much. If he were better, if his body hadn’t been broken he would have gathered himself upon his haunches. However, he is, at the moment, very much broken. Instead, he must settle for steadying his gaze on Henry’s large, worried eyes), “to do the job I signed up to do. A job I am being paid to do. Any of the men up there could have fallen.”

“But it was  _ you _ .”

“But it was me,” Billy agrees. 

There’s a pause that could last a second or an eternity. Billy Orren is so very tired and wants more than anything to give in to the heavy hands of sleep which have been trying to get a good grip on him for the past hour. And yet, he knows that the second he gives in he will go under, in every sense of the word. Billy Orren is tired, and may never walk again, and would have drowned if Neptune hadn’t eaten a tub of grease, a button, and two chocolate squares over a week ago. That is how the universe works sometimes, in its wondrous and strange infinities.

“Least we know Neptune’s doing his job properly,” he mumbles. It hurts to turn his head properly, but he tilts it enough that he can see Neptune, sleeping peacefully a few metres away under a heavy blanket as though none of this had ever happened.

“Thank God for Neptune,” Henry says with a squeeze of the hand.

**Author's Note:**

> -fairholme [ is quoted](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/597604826049806348/640703836692021306/image0.jpg?width=406&height=406) as always giving nep an extra kiss which is so incredibly valid. most valid lieutenant  
-yeah that was a sneaky 'not to me. not if it's you' thrown in there. i _created_ that epidemic i'm allowed to profit from it  
-i'm determined to include gore's artistic skills whenever possible  
-i'm [@nedlittle](https://nedlittle.tumblr.com) on tumblr and [@kitnotmarlowe](https://twitter.com/kitnotmarlowe) on twitter  



End file.
